The Testimonium

by Lewis Ben Smith

  * * *

  Bernardo Guioccini was feeling a good bit easier about his team as the chopper carried him across the deep blue waters that separated Capri from the Italian mainland. Josh Parker had called him at about one in the morning, and his quick answers and incisive questions made Guioccini realize why Dr. Martens had so much faith in the young academic. Clearly Parker had a strong working knowledge in his field, combined with a practical streak and a sense of humor as well. He was supposed to be arriving later that day, having reserved a seat on a flight to Italy that would be landing about the same time Guioccini and his team arrived at Capri.

  Guioccini did not intend to stay on the island for long, once Parker arrived. “Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many archeologists delay the dig,” was an adage one of his professors had passed on years before, and it was true. Archeologists as a rule tended to be a pretty strong-willed, territorial bunch, and when several of them worked in close quarters it was easy for tempers to fly. He knew that Rossini and Sforza had a good mentor-student relationship, and that MacDonald was an easygoing fellow who had worked with Dr. Rossini before. Dr. Apriceno could be testy, but only when it came to her specialty. Aside from her precious ancient spores, she was a warm and motherly figure. But with a find of this significance, even the most even-tempered professionals could develop hostile tendencies if their pet theories or field techniques clashed.

  Dr. Simone Apriceno looked out the window intently, waiting to see the lovely island of Capri come into view. She had not been there in many years, but still harbored fond memories of the place, since she and her ex-husband had enjoyed a very happy honeymoon there thirty-five years before. Later on, events had come between them, and his infidelity had led to their divorce—but they had some awfully good years before then, and those years had started at Capri. In her mind, she tried to visualize the Villa Jovis as she remembered it from an afternoon hike they had taken during their stay, but she had been to so many old ruins in the years between that she was having a hard time picturing the place in her head.

  Duncan MacDonald had no such difficulty—he had visited Capri many times, first as a student tourist during semester breaks, and later as a scholar of Roman history and archeology. The first century AD fascinated him, as did the late Roman Republic. It was not only one of the most important and influential eras in the history of the world, it was also the time in which the faith that he lived by had been born. He had studied the Gospels and the other books of the New Testament for years, and had also read and studied the works of the Apostolic Fathers, second-century Christians who had known the original Apostles or their disciples. He was familiar with (and somewhat contemptuous of) all of the Gnostic gospels as well—they were all composed in the second, third, and fourth centuries, although frequently attributed to the original apostles of Jesus. As a lot, they were so far inferior to the canonical gospels as to richly deserve the rejection the Church had dealt to them when they were written. It always amused him to see how various pop culture books or celebrities occasionally “discovered” the Gnostic works and tried to claim that they represented the “real” Christianity that the Church had covered up for 2,000 years. He wondered if any of these people had actually read and compared the two sets of works. If they had, he thought, then they were even more empty-headed than he had imagined. But his defense of the original Scriptures was just part of the Church’s two-thousand-year struggle against heresy of all sorts. Why should this century be any different from all the previous ones?

  All three scientists were ready to hop out of the chopper the moment it began to hover over the ruins, but before they could disembark, the mobile lab it had been carrying beneath it had to be lowered into place. The level on which the chamber had been discovered also featured a large, flat floor area that had been cut directly from the mountain beneath it—once covered over with expensive marble, no doubt, most of which had been removed centuries ago to decorate some wealthy medieval Italian home. The floor was just the right size to accommodate the lab, and the two archeologists on the ground helped guide the pilot to set it down. Once that was done and the cable disengaged and reeled in, the chopper touched down briefly on the higher level in order to let the three eager academics hop out and grab their equipment and luggage. The chopper would be back with some other living amenities later that afternoon, but for the moment, they could commence work.

  As the helicopter lifted off, Rossini and Sforza mounted the steps to greet the arriving team. “Only two?” Isabella asked Dr. Guioccini. “Could Dr. Martens not make it?”

  “Luke is recovering from an accident at the moment and cannot travel,” he replied. “He is sending a surrogate, but Dr. Joshua Parker was on sabbatical in the U.S. and cannot arrive here until this afternoon. I’ve never met him, but Dr. Martens endorsed him with great enthusiasm.”

  “I’ve heard the name,” Isabella said, “but that’s all. This must be Dr. MacDonald, then?” she asked, looking at the man whose khaki shirt was topped with a clerical collar.

  “Doctor, Father, ‘that priest who calls himself an archeologist’—I’m like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: many are my names in many lands,” returned the cleric in a soft Scottish burr. “Delighted to meet you, Dr. Sforza. I had the pleasure of speaking with your late husband at a conference in London eight years ago.”

  “I went to London with him,” said Isabella, “but wound up not being able to attend the conference due to a nasty bout of food poisoning. No wonder the British used to rule half the world—if they can survive on English food, they are made of sterner stuff than most of us!”

  He laughed. “Just come up to Scotland, lassie, and I can show you what TRULY terrible food tastes like! My mother’s haggis is the main reason I haven’t gone home in over twenty years!” He then turned to Dr. Rossini. “Giuseppe, you old goat, I might have known I would find ye camping on an island with a beautiful young woman!”

  “What is it about a clerical collar that automatically confers a dirty mind on those who wear them?” Rossini shot back. “I’ll have you know, Father Duncan, that Dr. Sforza is a model of womanly virtue, as the two tents folded by yon wall should have shown you!”

  “You poor dear,” interjected Simone Apriceno. “Having to work alongside these two terrible old men for the next few weeks! Fear not, I shall protect you from their wicked ways!”

  Isabella laughed. “I’ve known Giuseppe for years,” she said. “He is all bark and no bite. Compared to some of the archeologists I’ve worked with, these two are choirboys! You must be Dr. Apriceno. We’ve never met, but I’ve studied some of your work. The debunking of the Veil of Magdalene was a nice bit of forensic science.”

  “The sisters were terribly disappointed to find out their most cherished relic was made in France in the 1300s,” said the paleobotanist, “but the Mother Superior said it was better to know the truth than to pass on a myth. I respected her greatly for that.”

  “Now that we’ve all gotten acquainted,” said Guioccini, “Isabella, why don’t you show us what you and Giuseppe have found?”

  “My pleasure,” she replied. “Follow me down the steps, my colleagues—and back in time two thousand years!” The team descended the steps of the Villa Jovis together.

  This particular would-be Messiah of the Jews was a former carpenter who apparently claimed descent from their ancient King David—founder of a dynasty that was toppled by the Babylonians over six centuries ago! I first heard the stories and asked the centurions whom I have stationed in the various cities of Judea to keep me informed if this fellow gave signs of making trouble. However, he seemed to have no interest whatsoever in politics. He wandered about with a small band of farmers and fisherman—and, oddly enough, one Jewish publicani who chose to renounce tax farming and join him. His activities seemed to focus on long, rambling sermons commanding people to love one another, and describing a “kingdom of God” that would rule over men’s hearts rather than their bodies. Harmless mystical nonsense,
it seemed to me. The other stories about him were so incredible that I ignored them at first, but they continued over so long a period that I eventually began to pay them heed. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, apparently had a remarkable power of healing that was widely witnessed. Indeed, one of my senior centurions told me that Jesus had healed a servant of his by merely saying a few words from miles away! I scoffed at that account, but he swore that it was true. But, as you will (I hope) agree, I saw nothing in this man that caused me any concern for the Empire or its control of Judea. However, the religious leaders of the Jews were adamantly opposed to this man’s teachings—he claimed some sort of direct relationship to their God that they said was blasphemous. As governor, I saw no reason to involve myself in a minor religious dispute.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I first noticed the fallen masonry from the top of the staircase,” said Rossini as the team approached the entrance. “When I reached the bottom and was able to view the entire wall, I saw this opening that had been revealed by the collapse. I had a pocket flashlight with me, and poking my head inside—being careful not to actually step into the chamber—I saw the very thick coating of stone dust, as well as the table and stool, plus the square object to the rear of the chamber. I immediately realized that this had the potential to be a find of some significance, so I backed out and called Dr. Sforza.”

  Isabella took up the narration from that point. “I arrived about four hours later. Giuseppe did not have a camera, but he had prepared detailed sketches of the staircase, the opening, and the shape of the chamber as much as he could see from the entrance. I immediately began taking pictures and video to document what we found as we went inside. Since it was Giuseppe’s discovery, I let him begin to uncover the first artifacts while I filmed.”

  As she spoke, Rossini deftly removed the tarp Isabella had covered the entrance with. He stepped inside and illuminated the writing table with his flashlight. The others congregated at the entrance as she continued her narration. “The stone dust on top of the table was about a centimeter and a half deep, shrouding every object. We decided to start with the table as the easiest choice. The largest object on the tabletop proved to be this inkwell. As we uncovered it, it was apparent that some of the ink from it had dripped out and stained the tabletop—which led us to conclude that the inkwell was actually used on this table. We still had no idea how old it was or who may have used it, but it was Roman era glass. Next we found a red wax candle and a bronze candleholder. Again, obviously Roman in age—in fact, the candleholder was embossed with a Roman eagle and the SPQR of the Republic. That puts it squarely in the first century. But it was the next object that made us realize the true significance of the site.”

  Rossini had been using his pocket torch to illuminate the various objects as they were described, and now he brought it to bear on the golden ring. It had not been moved since they uncovered it, but the insignia was facing toward the door, so that the seal was plainly visible. As Isabella described it, the three archeologists leaned forward in fascination. “This sealing ring bears the name and title of Tiberius Julius Augustus Caesar, Second Emperor of Rome. It is lying next to the sealing wax candle—and, when I enlarged the photos on my laptop, there actually appear to be remnants of sealing wax embedded between the embossed letters on the ring. Someone—most likely Tiberius himself—used this ring at this table two thousand years ago.”

  Father MacDonald let out a low whistle of amazement. “Amazing!” he said. “This is the first artifact ever uncovered that can be said with certainty to have belonged to a Roman Emperor of the first century.”

  Isabella smiled. “It gets better;” she said. “I will add that at this point Dr. Rossini suggested that we cease uncovering artifacts and secure the site. It was my decision, and mine alone, to continue uncovering the items on top of this table. If it was the wrong decision, I want the record to reflect that. We did continue to record our progress both on film and with still shots, so that there would be no question of any tampering with the site or its artifacts. There was one object still visible on the tabletop, covered by the same thick layer of dust. We bagged up samples of the dust covering each artifact, by the way, Dr. Apriceno.”

  “Excellent!” the paleobotanist interjected.

  “This time, we uncovered a quill pen, lying in the center of the desk. I was the one who realized that it was not, in fact, lying directly on the desk but on a sheet of papyrus completely concealed by the stone dust. Dr. Rossini very carefully proceeded to remove the dust from the sheet, which was covered with Latin writing. We did not take the time to decipher the handwriting, which was terribly shaky and rather small. We were a bit shaky ourselves by that point! But what we were able to read was a signature that was large enough and bold enough to be legible. It is the signature of Tiberius Caesar.”

  Although Bernardo had already been told what they found, actually looking at the ancient document took his breath away. The other two team members were too stunned to speak for a moment. Finally Father MacDonald spoke up. “This is an incredible find, but that papyrus needs to be stabilized immediately. The longer it is exposed to the air the harder it will be to preserve. May I step inside?”

  Isabella stepped back a bit and let him in to look at the ancient text. He carefully studied it from every angle, then took a very fine-bladed pen knife and tried to insert it under one corner of the letter for the slightest fraction of an inch. Then he turned to the others. “I was afraid of this. The lacquer on the tabletop has bonded to the papyrus, and there is not going to be any easy way to detach the sheet from this table. I will have to move the whole thing to the lab and work on it there—which means that the other artifacts will have to be removed from the tabletop and all the stone dust cleared from it as well. Simone, I presume you will want to take some samples from the remaining undisturbed dust layer first?”

  Apriceno stepped forward. “It looks like all their samples were carefully collected and labeled, but I am going to remove dust from the undisturbed areas of the tabletop to be certain. At that point you can remove the other items from the tabletop and carry them all to the mobile lab. Then I’ll need to chase all of you out of here while I get samples from every other surface inside the chamber. Ideally, that dust should be identical in makeup to that which you removed from the tabletop, which will confirm the antiquity of the chamber and a lack of any tampering with the site.”

  Isabella nodded. “I don’t see any problem with that,” she said. “I think cleaning, cataloguing, and studying the other pieces will take up the next couple of days. Hopefully when Dr. Apriceno finishes collecting all her samples we can vacuum out the chamber and get a look at what lies under all this lovely ancient stone dust.”

  They stepped out of the chamber to let the pollen specialist collect her samples. For some time they discussed the site’s potential, and the best means of curating what had been found so far. After some time Dr. Guioccini’s phone buzzed, and he glanced at the incoming text message. “It seems Dr. Parker will arrive at Capodichino Airport in Naples at six PM. I’ve directed the chopper pilot who delivered us to pick him up there, so our team will be complete by the end of the day. So while we are waiting for Dr. Apriceno to complete her work, let’s finish getting the mobile lab set up.”

  The four archeologists entered the lab. The equipment had all been secured for transport, and for the next hour or so they unbuckled straps, adjusted sensitive equipment, and opened various cabinets to check the instruments within. Rossini plugged the main power line into a small but powerful portable generator and started it up. MacDonald took a quick inventory of the chemicals he would need, and then lowered the viewing hood he would be using to study what they were already calling the “Tiberius manuscript.” Guioccini walked around the small trailer, checking to see that everything they needed would be there, and listing the items that would have to be flown in. Once the mobile lab was set up, he asked the three to step outside.

  “I will be leaving on the ch
opper that brings Dr. Parker in,” he said. “For the time being I will be operating out of the Antiquities Bureau office in Naples. I want updates on any new discoveries, and any progress made with the ones already documented. Hopefully in a few days we can make some kind of public statement. This is already a remarkable find and has the potential to become even more so, depending on what else is in that chamber. MacDonald, I would like a rough translation of the Tiberius manuscript within the next forty-eight hours, if possible. Make sure that you and Dr. Parker agree on the translation before you forward it. The sealing ring, candle, quill, and everything else should be carefully analyzed, photographed, and documented so that I can present them to the Bureau before the week is out. Any questions?” There were none. He had chosen his team well.

  “I’ve collected all necessary samples of the dust from on and around the table,” Dr. Apriceno interrupted the briefing. “We can begin moving it from the chamber to the lab in a few moments. The table is not secured to the floor, but we will need to remove the other artifacts from the top of it before we transport it.”

  Guioccini nodded his agreement and dismissed the team. They waited outside the chamber while Giuseppe donned a pair of gloves. Moving carefully, Dr. Rossini reentered the chamber and used a pair of padded forceps to gingerly lift each object from the tabletop and place them in clear plastic boxes, which he then sealed with airtight lids before handing them to Isabella and Dr. MacDonald, who gingerly carried them to the lab. Once the inkwell, ring, candle, and candleholder were removed, Rossini asked MacDonald to take a careful look at the ancient document and the quill that rested on it. The Vatican archeologist very carefully prodded the quill with a long-handled pair of tweezers. It shifted easily, without any of the papyrus adhering to it. Breathing a sigh of relief, he gently placed it in an oblong plastic box and handed it out to Dr. Rossini. Then he carefully lifted the ancient stool that had sat under the writing desk for twenty centuries and carried it to the mobile lab as well, shielding it from direct sunlight with a thin sheet of opaque, acid-free plastic wrap. It was surprisingly light from dry rot, and he doubted that it would ever be able to bear a person’s weight again. While it was an interesting and rare find, it could wait until after the ancient manuscript had been translated and analyzed.